Catastrophe
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a state of extreme (usually irremediable) ruin and misfortune
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Any large and disastrous event of great significance.
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The dramatic event that initiates the resolution of the plot in a tragedy.
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A type of bifurcation, where a system shifts between two stable states.
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A catastrophe is a sudden event that causes very significant damage, destruction, or loss. It typically refers to a natural disaster such as an earthquake, flood, or hurricane, but it can also refer to a severe accident or incident caused by human error or conflict, such as a nuclear meltdown or war. Catastrophes often result in significant harm to people, the environment, or property, leading to enormous recovery efforts.
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the final event in a romance or a dramatic piece; a denouement, as a death in a tragedy, or a marriage in a comedy
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a violent and widely extended change in the surface of the earth, as, an elevation or subsidence of some part of it, effected by internal causes
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kat-as′trō-fē, n. an overturning: a final event: an unfortunate conclusion: a calamity.—adj. Catastroph′ic—ns. Catas′trophism, the theory in geology that accounts for breaks in the succession by the hypothesis of vast catastrophes—world-wide destruction of floras and faunas, and the sudden introduction or creation of new forms of life, after the forces of nature had sunk into repose; Catas′trophist, a holder of the foregoing, as opposed to the uniformitarian theory. [Gr., kata, down, strephein, to turn.]
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A disaster beyond expectations
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Catastrophe is a short play by Samuel Beckett, written in French in 1982 at the invitation of A.I.D.A. and “[f]irst produced in the Avignon Festival … Beckett considered it ‘massacred.’” It is one of his few plays to deal with a political theme and, arguably, holds the title of Becketts most optimistic work. It was dedicated to then imprisoned Czech reformer and playwright, Václav Havel.
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